Federal Register Summary for week of 25 November

Agriculture

Notice of the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture Meeting

AGENCY: Agricultural Research Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5
U.S.C. App. 2, the United States Department of Agriculture announces a
meeting of the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century
Agriculture (AC21).

DATES: The meeting dates are December 6-7, 2011, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
each day.

Environmental Protection Agency

Meeting of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of a public meeting.

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of a meeting of the National Drinking
Water Advisory Council (NDWAC or Council), established under the Safe
Drinking Water Act. The Council will consider various issues associated
with drinking water protection and public water systems including
actions to assist small water systems and efforts underway to address
nutrient pollution of drinking water supplies. The Council will also
receive updates about several on-going drinking water program
activities.

DATES: The Council meeting will be held on December 14, 2011, from 8:30
a.m. to 5 p.m., and December 15, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Eastern Standard Time.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City
Hotel, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Members of the public who would like
to attend the meeting, present an oral statement, or submit a written
statement, should contact Suzanne Kelly, by email,
Kelly.Suzanne@epa.gov, by phone, (202) 564-3887, or by regular mail at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Ground Water and
Drinking Water (MC 4601M), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC
20460.

Purpose of Meeting: The Advisory Committee for BIO provides
advice, recommendations, and oversight concerning major program
emphases, directions, and goals for the research-related activities
of the divisions that make up BIO.

Request for Comments on the Intent To Conduct an Evaluation of the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT)

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

SUMMARY: This notice announces the intent of the National Center for
Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) to conduct an evaluation of the designs for two of the
three surveys that comprise the Scientists and Engineers Statistical
Data System (SESTAT). This notice is in response to recent improvements
to the design of the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) that
potentially offset the further need for the National Survey of Recent
College Graduates (NSRCG).

As part of this evaluation, the NCSES is: (1) Investigating the
possibility of discontinuing the information collection for the NSRCG;
(2) examining the use of the American Community Survey (ACS) to
increase the sample of young graduates within the NSCG; and (3)
studying the impact of providing data on young graduates rather than
recent graduates.

SESTAT is a unique source of longitudinal information on the
education and employment of the college-educated U.S. science and
engineering (S&E) workforce. These data are collected through three
biennial surveys: The NSCG, the NSRCG, and the Survey of Doctorate
Recipients (SDR). The NSCG is the core of SESTAT providing data from a
nationally representative sample of U. S. scientists and engineers with
at least a bachelor's degree. The NSRCG supplements SESTAT with an
inflow of recent college graduates in S&E degree fields. The SDR
further supplements SESTAT with the stock and inflow of U.S. earned
doctoral level scientists and engineers.

Prior to the recent improvements to the NSCG, the NSRCG was the
only source of data for the inflow of recent college graduates in S&E
fields. Prior to the 2010 survey cycle, the NSCG selected its sample of
college graduates once a decade from the decennial census long form and
relied on the NSRCG to maximize coverage of the underlying S&E
workforce. In the 2010 survey cycle, the NCSES redesigned the NSCG as a
nationally representative rotating panel survey of college graduates
based on biennial samples drawn from the ACS. The inclusion of a field
of degree question on the ACS allows the NSCG to efficiently sample
college graduates in S&E degree fields. In addition, the ongoing nature
of the ACS allows the NSCG to provide coverage of the inflow of new
college graduates to each new panel. This improvement in coverage
allows the NSCG to provide biennial estimates of young college
graduates in S&E degree fields and, as a result, potentially offsets
the further need for conducting the biennial NSRCG.

It should be noted that the potential design changes being
considered for SESTAT will not result in any change in the population
covered by SESTAT, nor will it have an impact on race/ethnicity and
other diversity data produced by SESTAT. The potential design changes,
however, could impact the precision level for SESTAT estimates of the
recent graduates population. Since the NSRCG sample selection targets
recent college graduates and the NSCG sample selection targets young
college graduates, the evaluation will examine the impact of providing
data on young graduates rather than recent graduates.

The NCSES is interested in all comments, especially from government
policy makers, academic researchers, and NSRCG data users that specify
concerns related to the possibility of discontinuing the NSRCG.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Lynda T. Carlson, Director,
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National
Science Foundation, at (703) 292-7766, or email at
mailto:lcarlson@nsf.gov.

Sunshine Act Meeting

AGENCY: National Science Foundation

ACTION: Notice of meeting

The National Science Board's Committee on Programs and Plans (CPP)
Task Force on Unsolicited Mid-Scale Research (MS), pursuant to NSF
regulations (45 CFR Part 614), the National Science Foundation Act, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 1862n-5), and the Government in the Sunshine Act (5
U.S.C. 552b), hereby gives notice in regard to the scheduling of a
teleconference for the transaction of National Science Board business
and other matters specified, as follows:

Location: This meeting will be held by teleconference at the National
Science Board Office, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd.,
Arlington, VA 22230. A public listening room will be available for this
teleconference meeting. All visitors must contact the Board Office
[call (703) 292-7000 or send an email message to
nationalsciencebrd@nsf.gov] at least 24 hours prior to the teleconference for the public room number and to arrange for a
visitor's badge. All visitors must report to the NSF visitor desk
located in the lobby at the 9th and N. Stuart Streets entrance on the
day of the teleconference to receive a visitor's badge.

Updates and Point of Contact: Please refer to the National Science
Board Web site http://www.nsf.gov/nsb for additional information and schedule updates (time, place, subject matter or status of meeting) may
be found at http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/notices/. Point of contact for this meeting is: Matthew B. Wilson, National Science Board Office, 4201
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230. Telephone: (703) 292-7000.

Sunshine Act Meeting

AGENCY: National Science Foundation

ACTION: Notice of meeting

The National Science Board's Task Force on Merit Review, pursuant
to NSF regulations (45 CFR part 614), the National Science Foundation
Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 1862n-5), and the Government in the Sunshine
Act (5 U.S.C. 552b), hereby gives notice in regard to the scheduling of
a meeting for the transaction of National Science Board business, as
follows:

DATE AND TIME: Monday, November 28, 2011, from 1 to 2 p.m., EST.

SUBJECT MATTER: Discussion of the draft Merit Review Criteria report.

STATUS: Open.

This meeting will be held by teleconference originating at the
National Science Board Office, National Science Foundation, 4201Wilson
Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230. A room will be available for the public and
NSF staff to listen-in on this teleconference meeting. All visitors
must contact the Board Office at least one day prior to the meeting to
arrange for a visitor's badge and obtain the room number. Call (703)
292-7000 to request your badge, which will be ready for pick-up at the
visitor's desk on the day of the meeting. All visitors must report to
the NSF visitor desk at the 9th and N. Stuart Streets entrance to
receive their visitor's badge on the day of the teleconference.

Office of Science and Technology Policy

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Meeting

AGENCY: Office of Science and Technology Policy.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the schedule and summary agenda for a
conference call of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST), and describes the functions of the Council. Notice
of this meeting is required under the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FACA), 5 U.S.C., App. The purpose of this conference call is to
discuss PCAST's report on undergraduate science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

DATES: The public conference call will be held on Monday, December 12,
2011 (4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Time (ET)). To receive the call-in
information, attendees should register for the conference call on the
PCAST Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast no later than 12 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, December 8, 2011.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Information regarding the meeting
agenda, time, and how to register for the meeting is available on the
PCAST Web site at: http://whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast. Questions about the conference call should be directed to Dr. Deborah D. Stine, PCAST
Executive Director, at dstine@ostp.eop.gov, (202) 456-6006.